Monteverdi’s Vespers was written over a hundred years earlier than some of the other big guns in Baroque choral repertoire, like Handel’s Messiah, or Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Yet performances only started happening during the 1930s, spurred on by the post-war interest in early music.

Monteverdi’s Vespers has been described as a ‘towering masterpiece’. It is intimate and grand, prayerful and dramatic, exalted and sensual – a dizzying array of textures and sonorities in brilliant instrumental writing, opulent choruses, and moving solo arias and duets.